Well, I know its been awhile; but we have had so much to do and a lot has happened. First off we had orientation the first Wednesday after the long weekend and we got to meet Mrs. Haws his preschool teacher. Okay is it just me or are many moms at preschool about to have babies? No they really are; one last just went in for a scheduled c-section almost two weeks ago as she was way past due. McKinnley is her name; what a cutie; I met her on Monday. Only four more moms to go I think. My mom came into town to watch Madison while we were there for about an hour. God love Scholastic. Four brochures to flip through and all I can find are the classics I read as a kid; you know, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, etc. I have over $80 worth of books chosen for both of them, thank goodness for birthday money that showed up before the order was due last Friday. I am ordering them all, yey! David was in Indianapolis that week so he missed things. At least it wasn't the first day of school.
That weekend David (who came back Thursday about midnight)planned a nice dinner for Saturday; smoked scallops wrapped in bacon; little buffalo meatloaves (yes I said Buffalo!)D, thought he picked up minced beef and he made a boo-boo, they were really good; food supply aside. A little wine and a boy who thought he could ride his dog...thanks Richard. We were really enjoying a nice evening, standing from the patio door I see Stirling on Kayley; what a bad idea, and of course just as I say this isn't a good idea, Kayley stands up sending Stirling head first into Kayley's bone on the ground. Four hours later and three stitches we had a whole boy again. If you are squeamish look away; it still makes me want to hug him when I see the pictures. If you asked him what happened now he blames Richard for showing him how to do it! Lol, that is what he kept telling people at Maddie's birthday party.

The following Monday he started preschool, what a cool kid; he's growing up so fast.


I spent a lot of time preparing for Madison's birthday. I ended up making two Wilton "Butterfly" cakes; one for a test run on her birthday and the actual one for her birthday I started decorating Friday night and finished off the details in about two hours Saturday morning before everyone arrived. My first attempt at the cake on Thursday I used all store bought icing to decorate it; I found it too soft and didn't hold the shape that it should using the icing tips. The second one I used store bought for the base and made my own butter cream icing for the decorating. I would say the second one I made tasted much better, I stuck with a golden yellow cake mix, making sure everything was peanut free. I stayed up until after 11pm Friday night working on salads and anything else I could save myself from doing on Saturday. I made macaroni and potato salad from scratch and iced the cake Friday night in an hour I was so impressed with myself. That left decorating for Saturday that I could focus on solely. I did carrot and celery sticks for the kids as I thought most wouldn't like the salads. Lastly I did burgers with works and hot dogs, unfortunately it turned out that D didn't get a hamburger; when I went for my first I think some were heading for seconds; oops. I was already short two burgers and made up with it in hot dogs. Then we had two extra guests, so short four in total. Next time I think I'll do twice the amount of burgers; even the kids wanted them over hot dogs.


We had twenty two people at the house for her first birthday and I would say it was a success, everyone left happy and well fed I would say. Everyone spoiled her and made sure she had wonderful day. I'm thankful for all the family and friends that made her day a great one and the others who couldn't be with us, we were thinking of you of course. She won't need more clothes for sometime, and I can't wait to get the books I ordered from Stirling's preschool with their birthday money. All the items I did up for Maddie look great I hung them on Sunday; her room looks more lived in now. Here's the pic that I have of one of the items I painted.

Here's the birthday girl too of course; on her big day and on party day.





Now that this one is over I plan to finish the train I am painting on Stirling's wall and start on the growth chart for his birthday. I am planning to do a Wilton "Train" cake; I figure it should take me twice as long to decorate it so I plan to have it done the day before. I have almost two months to plan that one. At least Stirling has decided he wants to wear the "monster costume" I made him last year, yey; one less thing to have to do. I wonder if Madison will fit into Stirling's vampire costume from his first Halloween.
She's a walking machine so it will be wonderful to see her walking to people's homes; I admit that this action only benefits us; it's the only was you can continue trick or treating when you are older. Once the kids are older then you are reduced to eating the bits they don't like. If I remember, I didn't like licorice flavoured jelly beans or those nasty taffy chunks in the Halloween decorated wrapping. My dad got those.
I have so much more to write about, but I think this enough for now. I'll try to do some more later this week.